UB ‘Giselle’ Reviews all Universal Ballet Reviews

what mainly shocked me about all the reviews was how litlle real understanding of ballet exists in todays times--regarding corps de ballet qualities there are only 2 companies which in my eyes still have high qualified corps: kirov and pob---when you look at rb you are shocked how deep the corps-quality could drop within the last 10-15 years-- most of todays dancers are mainly interested in showing off technique and tricks and pay little to no attention to style( including foot-work) and interpretation--abt is a company with virtuosic male dancers, but little artistic depth--the corps is underrehearsed and all different types of physique and sizes--ballerina qualities exist less and less--it's more supermarket than gourmet quality---in western co i see very little understanding of port de bras and phrasing -- here no comes a very young co with no tradition but with a wonderful idea of transferring vaganova style to the west with its western roots in the kirov academy in washington-with vinogradov's strict hand on them just for 2 years- give them time to grow, but what was visible already, dancers from different cultures melting into one style, and who can judge on a co by just 1-2 perf.,you have to see a whole serie---with a well trained corps- the girls had good physique+line , even most of their feet are not well arched and the point-work has to be improved-the perf.quality varied still very much from perf. to perf., but i saw a couple of these perf. with a very dynamic and harmonious corps and extremely welldanced character-dances with the necessary accents in dancing---the sadlers wells stage of course was too small and the corps in giselle looked sometimes cramped around too much set-the giselles i saw seh-eun kim and sun-hee park were very lyrical- park a little more classical-with beautiful arms and of real spirit in act 2 and tenderness in their quiet interpretation-and both with very subtile bourres..i never would compare this co to kirov, with its 250 years tradition ( kirov corps you can only compare to itself)--you have to see it western eyes-pyrotechniques here and there are enjoyable, but in no way artistic---i see much hope in this young new co, to present classics on the base of taste and style and not like many other co on the base of technique +lack of style( including hyperextensions)--personality alone also is not enough--to project with the body becomes more and more a foreign language. i wish universal ballet much luck and i'm very curious to see them progress---by the way they were very successful in usa in 1998 and this year.they will be in n.y. in august 2001 with bayadere and 32 shades.